The Poor Fisherman -

“Mum was a widow again, this time with six children, and still no widow’s pension. To get by, mum took in lodgers. Our two-storey terrace has a room upstairs for paying guests.

One lodger was a poor fisherman. Mum would take pity on him and share our dinner with him from time to time. This was 1919, the year of the Spanish flu, which killed millions around the world. One day he died on his fishing boat, and the police came to tell mum. They went upstairs to collect his things and found two trunks packed full of money. Mum was very shocked – to think she gave him the food from her children’s mouths, thinking that he was in need! The police asked her to make a claim on his money, but she replied that if he wasn’t gentleman enough to pay for food when he was alive, then she didn’t want it from him now.

His fishing boat was sold and the money all went to two sisters who were located in Scotland. Later a man came looking for him ans asked what happened to the boat. The police found the new owner, searched the boat and found another $1500 hidden on board!”

From the book Wharf Rats and Other Stories 2004 as told by Lillian Mabel Hitchen. Lamb Print East Perth.

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